Groups and Locations

Why do you believe what you believe?

Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know? examines that process, revealing the ways in which ideas and information become knowledge and understanding.

The Flash Application My Evidence by Exploratorium, Museum of science art and human perception, explores and then visualizes the way we get to know what we know. The user is asked to answer questions about facts that are hard for the individual to experience by himself. For example “Humans cause global warming” is a theory believed by many people but quite hard to proof by one individual. Going further it’s nearly impossible for the individual to know such things if it’s on its own. The answers to these questions range from “I noticed or experienced” to “I heard on TV or radio”. Further attributes of an answer are the place where someone learned it, the person’s gender or age and how much the author refutes or supports the stated fact.

Visualization

The most important part is the visualization of the statements. They are represented as circles or rings, depending on support or refute of the author. The color indicates the source of the knowlege. By hovering over an object it reveals the author’s comment on the statement.

The objects move around and bounce off each other, similar to the great visualization of we feel fine from Jonathan Harris and Seb Kamvar.